California’s proposed high-speed rail route in the Southland came into greater focus Thursday, after a state panel gave its backing to its staffers’ preferred, 82-mile route between Palmdale and Anaheim.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority board voted to agree with staff’s recommendation for the preferred routes of three segments, despite pleas from San Fernando Valley residents and people from other areas to delay or do away with the plans to build the project in their communities.

A 38.4-mile portion of the preferred route between Palmdale and Burbank has long been the most contentious, with multiple route options being considered over the years.

Michelle Boehm presents the state preferred alternative for the Palmdale to Burbank section of the high-speed rail during the California High-Speed Rail Authority board meeting in Burbank on Thursday, November 15, 2018. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

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Dan Richard, board chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, and board members listen to the state preferred alternative for the Palmdale to Burbank section of the high-speed rail during a board meeting in Burbank on Thursday, November 15, 2018. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

That route, known as SR-14, would tunnel under Sylmar and Pacoima, and run along the surface or at an elevation in Sun Valley, before going underground again near the Burbank Airport. This option was chosen over two others that would affect communities further east, such as Lake View Terrace, Shadow Hills and Sunland-Tujunga.

The Palmdale-to-Burbank section is the only section that strays from existing rail corridors. All three route options will be studied as part of an environmental impact review. A draft of the review’s findings is anticipated to be released in late 2019.

The remainder of the preferred route going down to Anaheim is divided into two parts. One runs 14 miles between Burbank to Los Angeles’s Union Station, and the other travels 30 miles between Union Station and Anaheim. There was only a single route proposed for each of those sections, and the board solidified its support for each.

During Thursday’s meeting, some residents who live along the preferred path in the Palmdale to Burbank section were close to tears as they spoke against the project.

“If you go through with this vote, and you vote in SR-14, I will lose my hometown as I know it,” Sun Valley resident Cindy Sower told the panel.

Sower was among the many San Fernando Valley residents at the meeting opposing the preferred Palmdale to Burbank section. She was concerned about the route going above-ground in her community, potentially threatening businesses and creating other impacts.

Sun Valley resident Susan Lustig urged the board not to treat their community, which is heavily industrial, as “dumping ground.”

She said there would be negative effects during construction, because the rail authority is planning to build a dirt conveyance system within their community.

“Why, once again, does Sun Valley get the waste and debris of a project?” she asked. “We’re certainly not the ones getting the multi-million dollar world-class, multi-model station, because that’s going to Burbank.”

Lustig added that she would “hate to mention this, but if this train is coming, if we have failed in stopping it, please set aside at least $100 million to build a world-class city park to go over where all the dirt and debris will be dumped. L.A. deserves it, but Sun Valley has earned it.”

Other residents further north in Sylmar expressed concern that tunneling underneath their homes would be dangerous.

“If this were next week, Thanksgiving, and you were sitting at my dining room table, you would be sitting directly over the … underground rail road that we’re talking about,” said Mark Wilcher, who lives in Sylmar’s Mountain Glen community.

“It is my wife’s dream home,” he said. “Please don’t make it a haunted house.”

Several also questioned the increasing costs of the project and wondered why the state was subjecting some communities to the effects of the project, when to them, the benefits of the project were not clear.

There were less than a handful of supporters at the meeting, one of whom was Sunland resident John Laue. While he sympathized with others who feel their community will not benefit from the project, he did not want Southern California to get left behind once the Northern California section gets built.

“We still need (the high-speed rail train) down at this end,” Laue said.

Board members said the preferred path would affect the fewest homes, natural areas and cultural resources. But they acknowledged that not everyone will be spared.

“We’d like to find a way to impact you less, but … people are always going to be impacted,” said Tom Richards, vice chair of the board. “We can’t avoid that.”

He said the decision was made “not just with a blind pass,” and the board planned to keep vetting the preferred route.

“It’s with the expectation that a lot of questions are going to be answered,” Richards said.

Board Chair Dan Richard said the vote tells the public that “this is where we’re focusing our attention.”

By picking a favorite route, the authority can “narrow and focus the environmental analysis” and to put attention on “the remaining, important environmental questions,” he said.

Some of the issues that the board specified in its resolutions included getting more detailed analysis of noise and tunneling impacts of the project.

But the board members extolled the economic and environmental benefits of the rail project, which would transport people across the length of California using electrical power.

Board member Ernest Camacho said California needs high speed rail if “this state is going to be as progressive as we think it is.”

The rail is being billed as an alternative to long car trips and airplane rides.

At the beginning of the meeting, the rail authority’s Southern California regional director, Michelle Boehm, asked the audience to close their eyes and imagine the future.

“In 2040, over 35,000 people will board a high-speed rail train in a station somewhere within L.A. County,” she said. “Pretty cool. We are here to take a step towards that.”

Elizabeth Chou has reported on Los Angeles City Hall government and politics since 2013, first with City News Service, and now the Los Angeles Daily News since the end of 2016. She grew up in the Los Angeles area, and formerly a San Gabriel Valley girl. She now resides in the other Valley, and is enjoying exploring her new San Fernando environs. She previously worked at Eastern Group Publications, covering Montebello, Monterey Park, City of Commerce, and Vernon.